Women and Equalities Committee launches pay gap inquiry

The Women and Equalities Committee launched an inquiry on 4 November to inform government strategy on reducing the gender pay gap.

The inquiry focuses on how effective government policies to reduce the pay gap will be for women over 40. It will examine whether changes to these proposals could help reduce the gender pay gap for this group more quickly or effectively, as well as asking what more could be done to improve the position of women aged 40 and over in terms of recruitment, retention, promotion and training.

Maria Miller, chair of The Women and Equalities Committee, said: “The gender pay gap is mainly a problem for women over 40, and currently hits women in their 50s even harder. However, the measures already announced by the government don’t target this group.

“Our inquiry aims to fill this gap in government thinking…[it] will make recommendations that will tackle the gender pay gap where it hits the hardest.”

Government policies to address the gender pay gap include mandatory reporting of the difference between the average pay of male and female staff for organisations with 250 or more employees.

This was recently extended to include large employers in the public sector, as well as private and voluntary sector organisations.

The pay reporting requirements will also have to include bonus information by gender.